Looking at the night sky, you¿d be forgiven for thinking it¿s all quiet up there in space. But you¿d be wrong. Extreme events are forever unfolding: galaxies explode, cosmic debris hurtles through the heavens and our own Milky Way is on a collision course with the giant Andromeda galaxy.

Mayhem moulded the cosmos, shaped life on Earth and at times threatened to end it. With an enduring sense of wonder, through cataclysms great and small, Bob Berman presents a destructive history of our universe.

Bob Berman is a leading astronomy writer and the author of Zapped, Zoom and The Sun¿s Heartbeat. He contributed the popular `Night Watchman¿ column for Discover for seventeen years and is currently a columnist for Astronomy, a host on Northeast Public Radio and science editor of The Old Farmer¿s Almanac. He lives in Willow, New York.